Chris [00:00:00] This is, this is, this is Chris Ellis and I am a business startup coach.
Chris [00:00:07] My mission is to empower and I do that by showing everyday people how to turn any business idea into very real income. This show is for the creatively and financially frustrated dreamers of the world.
Chris [00:00:22] This show is for those of you that can't escape, the feeling that your life that you are living doesn't match up with the life that you are capable of having. You know, that you can do more and be more because you've been blessed with a burning passion or an undeniable talent or a game changing business idea that can change the world.
Chris [00:00:43] You just don't know how to go from dreamer to doer I'm here to let you know that you've landed in the right place and that this show is for you. I'm going to give you all the game when it comes to launching a small business with no unnecessary, expensive time consuming steps.
Chris [00:01:01] If you're ready to go from breakdown to breakthrough, let's get into this.
[Session Begins]
Chris [00:01:07] Hey, it's Chris Ellis, your friendly neighborhood business coach and I am on a mission to show as many people as possible, how they can turn their business ideas into a real income. I am super excited because this is going to be a behind the scenes look at one of my signature products, my Brainstorm-to-Breakthru one-on-one coaching session.
Chris [00:01:28] So this is a coaching call where I have a client basically tell me 1) what their business idea is and 2) what seems to be holding them back. And then I use my business coachy brain and years of experience to come up with solutions on the spot. Now, my goal here is that when people see other people, like the clients that I work with with similar aspirations, similar problems, find solutions on the spot... It finally proves to them that not only is your dream possible, but it's extremely profitable as well... and practical. So let's get started.
Chris [00:02:05] Can you tell everyone your name?
Leslye [00:02:09] My name is Leslye Davis and I am in north Hollywood, California.
Chris [00:02:14] Oh, oh. North Hollywood in the house. *Makes Gunshot Noises* I don't know, if that’s appropriate…hahahaha… but we’re doing it.
Chris [00:02:26] Welcome to your future breakthrough. Are you excited for the company?
Leslye [00:02:33] I am very excited.
Chris [00:02:35] What do you want to do with your life?
Leslye [00:02:38] I would like to be a full-time doula.
Chris [00:02:40] And what obstacle is stopping you from going after that now?
Leslye [00:02:47] Scheduling, um, to be a full-time doula, you need to have, um, clients and your schedule kind of needs to be flexible... which since I also have a regular nine to five mine is not.
Chris [00:03:01] Understood understood. So to everybody that doesn't know, this, a doula is a person that, not only helps with the education aspects of the labor and the supporting of that, but also is the advocator, the support person when the time comes.
Chris [00:03:17] So just to recap, you're telling me that you want to be a full-time doula and what seems to be the hurdle is the scheduling conflicts that you have, because you have to have a real full-time day job that you have to keep.
Chris [00:03:31] And then you also have to have the ability to essentially be off enough to be able to support people that are having babies.
Chris [00:03:41] So, you know, you can't really predict when a baby is going to arrive. Like you can try to predict that. Right. Right. So you can't necessarily predict. So you need to have the flexibility to be able to say, okay, it's happening. I need to go drop what I'm doing and go to where you are in order to support this delivery.
Chris [00:04:02] Is that correct?
Leslye [00:04:03] Correct.
Chris [00:04:04] Welcome to your brainstorm to breakthrough session.
Chris [00:04:08] The goal is simple. One, I want to give you solutions to your issues that maybe you've never thought before and truly considered. But then also I want to give you the feeling that this isn't just some train that you can have, but it's something that's actually achievable here.
Chris [00:04:23] So that's what I want by the end of this session. Does that sound good?
Leslye [00:04:27] I follow you. Yes.
Chris [00:04:29] All right, let's make this happen. So up to this point, have you been trying to solve this problem in, in what ways have you been trying to address?
Leslye [00:04:45] Um, I've recently changed jobs to try and give myself a little bit more flexibility. The reality of my industry, um, that I do for my regular job... it's not much, it's not much flexibility.
Chris [00:05:02] Okay. Okay. I know that with, um, certain entrepreneur endeavors, There is like... of gig work that you can do.
Chris [00:05:11] Is that something that you tried or would be interested in or why or why not? Tell me more about that.
Leslye [00:05:17] Not something that I've tried. Um, it is something I'm interested in. There's different programs and things like that you can try to do... to be able to do what you love and still have a regular schedule.
Chris [00:05:29] Okay, I'll say this, and I swear they're not paying me to say this, but what I found was a good source of regular income and I can be able to control that as much as I can was like either Door Dash, like UberEats or something. For people that have cars and don't mind driving and stuff like that, I always suggest, uh, those kinds of situations. Where availability is a must for your particular industry that you want to go into because the beauty about those kinds of jobs, especially like Door Dash, UberEats or whatever, whatever delivery jobs. Uhhh... Task Rabbit.
Chris [00:06:06] There's a bunch of places that are in the gig economy that you can actually say, "Oh, these are my skills um, I can do this. I could take these little, these little jobs and these sort of contracts, these little mini contracts, and basically go out and do those and then have money." And then I can be off when I need to be off, you know? Yeah. So there's a lot of options that you may have.
Chris [00:06:28] You've already gotten a new job, but as a somewhat long-term solution... also try to go into the marketplace and pick out something that you with a) like and 2) give you flexibility 3) provide you the necessary finances that you need to get by and just provide the level of freedom that you need in order to be able to invest into.
Chris [00:06:54] I find that gig work is really helpful because you can leave it at the job, you know.
Leslye [00:07:00] Very much so.
Chris [00:07:01] My understanding is that you're still in a medically adjacent industry?
Leslye [00:07:06] Yeah.
Chris [00:07:07] Okay. So, it's a lot of work long hours and depending on the position, it's like also, you got to do work at home. When I was in a down period, I always prioritize jobs that did not make me take work home. Because the biggest thing here is that you don't want to put yourself in a financial situation where you are giving away your most precious resource, which is your time.
Chris [00:07:35] So you want to make sure that you don't do that. On a sheet of paper, um, list a series of gigs that you might like or websites that service the gig economy. Secondly, um, try a entrepreneur adjacent type of job. Stuff like Forex trading. It's almost being an entrepreneur. Like it's close. It has the benefit of being a thing where... you don't have a boss, so you can make your own schedule, but it's a skill that you can clock in and start working right away.
Chris [00:08:12] So it's not like... it's not like... MLMs, which is further into the entrepreneurial space.
Chris [00:08:21] Just for example, like if you were just selling like Mary Kay or something like that, then it would be like having a business and would be "crunch time". Because you don't have people naturally coming in to buy whatever products and services that you're going to be offering.
Chris [00:08:37] So it's one of those things where... if you can find a skill that has a marketplace that you can put yourself in almost immediately, like something like a Forex thing, or like my skills lend itself to contract work. So I do graphic design. I can illustrate. I can help people create a website. I can do this, that and the other, and I can go to places that cater to contractors.
Chris [00:09:06] I talked about a place called Fiverr. I'm sure you might have heard of that.
Leslye [00:09:10] I've heard of Fiverr.
Chris [00:09:11] Fiverr. Um, I don't know... it's either called oDesk or Upwork. They're basically the same thing. It's a marketplace of people who are looking for work, people who are willing to do it, give services. And they do it on an hourly basis here. So it's one of those things where it's goes, "Hey, I'm looking for something. And what I'm going to do is I have a proposal for the type of thing I would like to get done. And here are the people that I'm looking for."
Chris [00:09:40] And then you can just search it almost like Indeed or Monster and say, "Oh, I can do that job." And then you go. Okay. I would like to make a proposal. I, write. So, oh, actually, yeah, I know you write. So, you can literally put your services in as a writer and find some writing gigs, that'll be like, "Oh, I need a blog that talks about this, that and the other. And I just need a person who write this."
Chris [00:10:07] And then you could be like, "Oh, I can write that. And I have experienced in this particular area and here are my prices. Let's talk." And then they can hit you back about that. So think about all of your talents as well, and you can put those into a marketplace of your choice.
Chris [00:10:25] So you can be in a gig economy directly where it's just like... all right, there are striving gigs. There is such and such case or delivery gigs. Then there's, "Hey, I'll come over your house and do odd jobs" type gigs. And then there's, I have "A specific skill that I can actually sell." And then I can actually monetize that and I can monetize that on my own time.
Chris [00:10:46] All I have to do is just get a couple of good contract and then I'm set. Um, yeah. Yeah. And yeah. Is there anything else that I'm thinking? Mind you, I'm talking about all of this. And... can I be honest with you?
Leslye [00:11:05] Sure.
Chris [00:11:07] Like none of those are my real solutions. Those are just things that I'm giving you.
Chris [00:11:14] All right. So let's be candid. The reason that you're having the problem that you have on here is that you're prioritizing selling you and instead of selling your value. For context, everyone, Leslie is an amazing person. She is also my, and my wife's doula for not one child, but for two, now I'm going to ask you a question.
Chris [00:11:42] How many of their births were you there for?
Leslye [00:11:45] Neither.
Chris [00:11:47] Neither. Hahahahaha.
Chris [00:11:55] Um, Leslie was not there for my son's delivery, essentially because my wife had an emergency C-section that she had to undergo. So she couldn't be there. The reason why we couldn't be there for the second one was due to the fact that my other child was born during the height of COVID. And because she was born during the height of COVID, there were all these restrictions of who could be in the room at the time.
Chris [00:12:28] And it could only be like... me and my wife and like a set of people that could be in those as well. So she ended up missing both of the deliveries.
Leslye [00:12:44] You guys are supposed to be social distancing instead of having a baby,
Chris [00:12:51] I was social distance from everybody outside,
Chris [00:12:59] But, um, I say all of that to say, that you would think that the biggest source of value in our case should have been the delivery and should have been the place that, as a doula, you think that you need to actually provide the most support. But what I've found is that the information... and sitting us down... and helping us get a game plan for the labor... for what our family is supposed to do, who we need to call, who we need to set up appointments with, like... everything with the birthing ball. Like... when you weren't available and you weren't around. We still did, like for the second birth, because we got a chance to actually do.
Chris [00:13:53] I, we got, there was actually a labor for the second year. Like the first one, it was just like, oh, it's just cut her open and pull the baby out. And we was just sitting there like, okay,
Chris [00:14:07] whatever you're done, I'm gonna come down there and grab the baby. But the second time when there was a labor, we did so many things to the point that we have other people who actually helping and assisting with the labor... and they're like," I haven't even seen any of these techniques that you guys are doing. This is amazing... that you guys are doing all of this stuff."
Chris [00:14:28] So the level of preparedness that me and Sarah were for the birth of our second child was astronomical and we could not have done that...
Chris [00:14:43] I'm saying this to you live because I've never said this, but it is true.
Chris [00:14:51] It is true. Absolutely true. And I want to give you your flowers, even though this is supposed to be a session. But, we would not have been able to do a good job and feel as calm as we were and have a game plan as we were and know what we were doing as young parents that have never been through labor at all before, if it wasn't for you.
Chris [00:15:19] So I want you to understand that ultimately your value is not in you being there to assist people. And when you fully accept that, that's when you can go to the next level.
Leslye [00:15:35] Wow. That was impactful. I really hadn't thought about it that way.
Chris [00:15:42] Right. Your ability to prepare people... couples for the birth event and have a list of everything that they need and sit down with them and do those sessions that you did with my son and my daughter.
Chris [00:15:59] Those sessions were monumental for us. I know. I seem like I wasn't paying attention, but I was.
Leslye [00:16:06] I do know. your multi-task abilities. Hahahaha
Chris [00:16:12] I seem like I wasn't paying attention but I was all in and you should have seen me with that big ole birthing ball. And you should've seen us doing everything that we can do. And I was putting Sarah on our side and walking around with Sarah and doing all this other stuff and... just, um...
Chris [00:16:32] I think that a lot of times with people who are practitioners, one of the biggest things that they underestimate is the fact that they are much valuable any here than they are with their hands. They have a lot more information and insight in their brain that if they just give people droplets of it, it's game changing.
Chris [00:16:57] And I can say that personally, I give information all the time, even in my sessions that I've just feel like, "Oh, that's just a gimme." But I realized when I'm talking to people, they're like, "Whoa." And I'm like, "Oh, Really? Okay." And I feel like you probably have experienced that as well.
Leslye [00:17:23] Yeah.
Chris [00:17:24] Right? So you need to lean into that.
Chris [00:17:29] What I'll say here is a lot of times we see something that we aspire to as a blueprint when it's supposed to be a compass. So you want to be a full time doula and in your mind, you need a blueprint to make that happen. What I'm saying to you here is I want you to think of bit more of a compass pointing you ideally in the right direction.
Leslye [00:17:55] Got it.
Chris [00:17:55] I want you to think about what your job is ultimately as a doula, you are ultimately facilitating the ideal birth situation of a couple.
Leslye [00:18:09] Right.
Chris [00:18:10] So that's what you're doing. What is everything that you can do to facilitate that? Not just being there... but everything. What is everything that they need to know? What is everything that they need to put on their to do list in order to, um, prepare them better? Who are all the people that they need to talk to? Where are all the appointments that they need to make? Where all the places that they can go in order to get the best access to all of the things that birth facilities can provide?
Chris [00:18:43] Do they know about that kind of stuff? Right. So. If you start off as an educator, what'll happen here is that she'll make enough money that you can be a practitioner as well.
Leslye [00:19:05] I follow you.
Chris [00:19:06] Right? Because what will happen here is like, somebody like me... I am very hands-on but I don't have time to like help create their businesses like that. So what happens here is that I have to go, here's all of the information that you need. And if I'm doing that job consistently enough and well enough, I'm giving back enough money. And also what's going to happen here is people are just going to ask you, "Well, can't you just help me? Can't you just walk me through the process? Can't you just do this, that and other?"
Chris [00:19:42] So when you are educating people first, they're building a level of trust with you that you can use of essentially when you are finally ready. So monetize this part. That means having classes that are general birth facilitation classes.
Chris [00:20:05] I don't even want you to think of yourself as a doula at this particular point. Think of doula as part of a skillset. So with Sarah as a naturopathic health coach and a doctor, um, those are just activities that she does, but her total banner is a total wellness advocate. A total natural wellness advocate.
Chris [00:20:31] So because he's a total advocate... she's not limited to the types of things that she can do. She's not limited to the types of money that she can make, because she could either be making money, telling people how to do something. Or she could be telling people how to get the right supplements. She could be offering the supplements herself.
Chris [00:20:51] She could be pointing people in the right direction in order to get certain things and then when they pay for it, it's an affiliate, a marketing thing, or she'll just get a kickback from it. She's not just making money while she's dealing with patients, right? She can put out books, she can do talks. She can have one on one conversations with people and consultations. And then she can do the patient care. I'm saying that for you, your business can work very similar to Sarah's business. In the sense that you are an advocate and an expert. That people can come to you with all of their birthing questions. And then as you are making more money, As an advocate and as an expert and as a consultant, then you can add the services on and say, oh, by the way, "I can also be there for your child... If you want the gold package. If you want the full package, you can get me for this price at this particular. Because they already trust you. They're already coming to you and they're going to want to hire you. But what also can happen here, and this is also a part of my answer, is that you don't have to not help them with the doula part...
Chris [00:22:13] you can just be the type of person that facilitates the process of them getting a doula as well. So if you have a network of people that are full-time doulas, yourself, you can actually connect them and make that a part of your referral process. You can build a referral network right now of people, right?
Chris [00:22:37] So as an educator, as a person who may not have the time to be able to go, okay, I don't have time to be there for your birth because I don't know when it's going to happen and it's going to be hours and hours, but I know that this location provides these doulas. I know that there's a list of doulas that I can call and they're already vetted. And you can make deals with them.
Chris [00:23:00] So when your client roster gets to a certain stage where you're like I'm educating people and more people keep asking me whether or not I do the doula stuff, I can just put them off onto a list and then go, okay, they're in the pocket. And when there's like 5 - 10 people that I know need doula services that I can say, okay, "Who are the doulas that I know in my area? Who are the doulas that can help these people?"
Chris [00:23:31] And then I can actually go to those individual doulas and I can go, oh, Hey, I have an overflow of people that I can not help. Would you like to be a part of my referral network? And they can pay you money to connect them fully with that person. Because you're offering a service to doulas now who are just straight up doulas.
Leslye [00:24:00] Right.
Chris [00:24:01] Right. Because they need people that they can comfortably rely on in order to constantly be able to do their job. And now you're hooking them up. So there's a lot of ways to skin this cat, but it all starts with you realizing that your value is here, not here. Your value is in the information that you provide, not the time that you are giving away.
Chris [00:24:32] So you're not trading your time for cash. I want you to start thinking about what kind of group classes can I offer? What kinds of booklets and PDFs can I offer? What kind of course can I do? What are all the things that these people need to buy and schedule appointments with and stuff like that?
Chris [00:24:50] And I can make a master list of recommendations. And I can even make money off of selling that. So when you start working with people, one-on-one, it could be like, "Hey, you're going to get advice from me, but also I have this massive list of things that you can also do as well. And I have a booklet that you can use, and here's a workbook that you can do."
Chris [00:25:11] Here's this, that other, like you can make your own stuff and then just sell it as part of your package.
Leslye [00:25:16] Mmm Hmm. I've actually thought about doing that.
Chris [00:25:19] Yeah. So you can do that as well, too. And my wife, who is a naturopathic doctor and is a healer and is a person who've been super enthusiastic about, fertility and motherhood, has told me that she has wanted to work with you as well. So you guys can collaborate and come up with something together.
Chris [00:25:41] And then Sarah being the person that can have more time to market and sell this. She can be the type of person that can do that. And then you eat from that. You have all types of options once you get out of the I'm just doula, which is just one aspect of what you do and what you facilitate and say, I'm a facilitator.
Leslye [00:26:08] I do like that. I do like that aspect of it. It's kind of opened my mind up to the possibilities, um, that I hadn't thought of or avenues I haven't thought about.
Chris [00:26:17] I'm going to wrap this up. How do you feel after this session?
Leslye [00:26:20] That my thought process is more work to do.
Chris [00:26:24] Can you explain that a little bit more?
Leslye [00:26:26] Sooo, I realized that my business mindset was a little bit narrow and that I had more possibilities than I thought. So I feel excited at the possibilities of exploring more things, but I also feel like I definitely could put in more work towards my business and towards the way I do business.
Chris [00:26:53] Now that you have more possibilities, you also see areas in which you are actually in charge.
Leslye [00:27:00] Yes.
Chris [00:27:02] Yeah. Okay.
Leslye [00:27:03] Exactly. But I do feel, I do feel like there's areas I'm more in charge of, and that I can take control of.
Chris [00:27:10] Okay. That's actually, that's actually proved pretty cool.
Chris [00:27:13] One last question. If you knew someone who had a business idea that couldn't get it off the ground, would you suggest working with me?
Leslye [00:27:20] Yes, actually very thorough and very good at what you do.
Chris [00:27:26] Thank you very much. I appreciate that.
Chris [00:27:30] Do you feel like in 20 minutes that you've got a breakthrough?
Leslye [00:27:33] Yes, I do very much so. The idea that I'm, more than the physical being of, of being into my business, that my mindset and all that knowledge that I've stuffed in there could be valuable and worth money... is not an idea in which I considered.
Leslye [00:27:54] It was all about what I can do... like, physically. So that is hugely valuable. And. What I'm definitely the most I'm taking away from this conversation, I taking away other tidbits, but I think that one is probably the biggest.
Chris [00:28:13] Okay. That's good. All right. So thank you very much for doing this stick around for a second, because I still want to just talk to you for a little bit.
Chris [00:28:22] Yeah. I am going to stop recording.
[Outro and Call to Action]
Chris [00:28:26] Thank you for tuning into this episode of boss. Talk with Chris Ellis.
Chris [00:28:30] Shout out Leslye for being a part of this special episode.
Chris [00:28:34] And just to let you know... and here's your call to action, everybody.
Chris [00:28:38] You can get the same results that you heard today on this podcast. If you have, um, 20 minutes and a $20 bill. All you have to do is go to Chris ellis.tv/coaching. Again, that's www.chrisellis.tv/coaching and you can schedule your one-on-one session with me. That's the brainstorm-2-breakthru coaching session.
Chris [00:29:07] Basically you tell me your idea. You tell me why you feel that you can't get started now. And I'll use my years of experience and my business coaching brain to come up with the solution right there on the spot. I'm not gonna guarantee that you'll get a breakthrough, but you will though. Hahahaha
Chris [00:29:26] Thank you very much for tuning into this special episode and I'll see you next week.